Cover not available
Part of
Metaphor, Nation and Discourse
Edited by Ljiljana Šarić and Mateusz-Milan Stanojević
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 82] 2019
► pp. 33–58

Chapter 1
The desire for shelter

Nation- and state-building and the metaphorical discourse of fragile and collapsed states

Among scholars and practitioners of politics, a common way of thinking about insecure political systems is to conceptualize the lack of political order in terms of metaphorically fragile and collapsed states. The suggested solution to state fragility and collapse is often the policy of nation- and state-building. This chapter uses the theory of conceptual metaphor to understand the discursive and policy relationships between the metaphorical concepts of nation- and state-building and their counterparts in the conceptual metaphors of fragile and collapsed states. The chapter finds that fear of exposure and vulnerability in a world without shelter provides a logic for the physical protection supplied by the state and the remedy that nation- and state-building provide when that structure is in jeopardy.

Keywords: metaphors, Critical Metaphor Analysis, nation- and state-building, fragile and collapsed states
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical considerations
  • 3.Conceptual metaphors, state insecurity and the desire for shelter
    • 3.1and
    • 3.2Nation- and state-“building”
    • 3.3 and as a solution to “” and
    • 3.4Is “” the answer?
  • 4.Conclusion: The desire for shelter – metaphorical and literal
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 20 May 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.82.02mar
References
Baliamoune-Lutz, Mina, and Mark McGillivray
2011 “State Fragility: Concept and Measurement.” In Fragile States: Causes, Costs, and Responses, ed. by Wim Naudé, Amelia U. Santos-Paulino, and Mark McGillivray, 33–42. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bates, Robert H.
2008 When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brazinsky, Gregg
2007 Nation Building in South Korea: Koreans, Americans, and the Making of a Democracy. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brock, Lothar, Hans-Henrik Holm, Georg Sorensen, and Michael Stohl
2012 Fragile States. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Call, Charles T.
2008 “The Fallacy of the ‘Failed State’.” Third World Quarterly 29 (8): 1491–1507. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 “Beyond the ‘Failed State’: Toward Conceptual Alternatives.” European Journal of International Relations 17 (2): 303–326. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Campbell, David
1998 Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Carment, David, Stewart Prest, and Yiagadeesen Samy
2011 “The Cause and Measurement of State Fragility.” In Fragile States: Causes, Costs, and Responses, ed. by Wim Naudé, Amelia U. Santos-Paulino, and Mark McGillivray, 43–67. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carment, David, and Yiagadeesen Samy
2014 “The Future of War: Understanding Fragile States and What to Do about Them.” In Failed States and Fragile Societies: A New World Disorder?, ed. by Ingo Trauschweizer, and Steven M. Miner, 3–27. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Chilton, Paul A.
1996 Security Metaphors: Cold War Discourse from Containment to Common House. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Chilton, Paul A., and Mikhail Ilyin
1993 “Metaphor in Political Discourse: The Case of the ‘Common European House.’” Discourse and Society 4 (1): 7–31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cowling, David
1998 Building the Text: Architecture as Metaphor in Late Medieval and Early Modern France. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Delegation of the European Union to South Sudan
2016 “EU Projects with South Sudan.” [URL] (Accessed 13 September 2017).
Dobbins, James, Seth G. Jones, Keith Crane, and Beth Cole DeGrasse
2007 The Beginner’s Guide to Nation-Building. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.Google Scholar
Doyle, Michael W., and Nicholas Sambanis
2006 Making War and Building Peace: United Nations Peace Operations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Eberly, Don
2008 The Rise of Global Civil Society: Building Communities and Nations from the Bottom Up. New York: Encounter Books.Google Scholar
Edelman, Murray
1971 Politics as Symbolic Action: Mass Arousal and Quiescence. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Fukuyama, Francis
2004 State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Futamura, Madoka, Edward Newman, and Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh
2010 “Towards a Human Security Approach to Peacebuilding.” Research Brief. Tokyo: United Nations University.Google Scholar
Ghani, Ashraf, and Clare Lockhart
2008 Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gibbs, Raymond W., Jr.
1999 “Taking Metaphor Out of Our Heads and Putting it into the Cultural World.” In Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics: Selected papers from the Fifth International Cognitive Linguistics Conference, ed. by Raymond W. GibbsJr., and Gerard J. Steen, 145–166. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grotenhuis, René
2016 Nation-Building as Necessary Effort in Fragile States. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hatch, Reuben
1862 Bible Servitude Re-examined: With Special Reference to Pro-slavery Interpretations and Infidel Objections. Cincinnati: Applegate and Co.Google Scholar
Heathcoate, Nina
1964/1965 “United Nations and Nation-Building.” International Journal 20 (1): 20–32. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Helman, Gerald B., and Steven R. Ratner
1992–1993. “Saving Failed States.” Foreign Policy 89: 3–20.
Kaczmarska, Katarzyna
2016 “The Powerful Myth of the International Community and the Imperative to Build States.” In Myth and Narrative in International Politics: Interpretive Approaches to the Study of IR, ed. by Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, 209–228. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kollodge, Richard
(ed.) 2015 Shelter from the Storm: A Transformative Agenda for Women and Girls in a Crisis-Prone World. New York: United Nations Population Fund.Google Scholar
Kolstø, Pål
2000 Political Construction Sites: Nation Building in and the Post-Soviet States. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
(ed.) 2016 Strategies of Symbolic Nation-building in Southeastern Europe. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koteyko, Nelya, and Lara Ryazanova-Clarke
2009 “The Path and Building Metaphors in the Speeches of Vladimir Putin: Back to the Future?” Slavonica 15 (2): 112–127. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George
1999 Metaphorical Thought in Foreign Policy: Why Strategic Framing Matters. Washington, DC: The Frameworks Institute.Google Scholar
2014 “Mapping the Brain’s Metaphor Circuitry: Metaphorical Thought in Everyday Reason.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8 (958): 1–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson
1980 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
1999 Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Maasen, Sabine
2000 “Metaphors in the Social Sciences: Making Use and Making Sense of Them.” In Metaphor and Analogy in the Sciences, ed. by Fernand Hallyn, 199–240. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marks, Michael P.
2011 Metaphors in International Relations Theory. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Miller, Eugene F.
1979 “Metaphor and Political Knowledge.” American Political Science Review 73 (1): 155–170. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milliken, Jennifer
(ed.) 2003 State Failure, Collapse and Reconstruction. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Miskimmon, Alister, Ben O’Laughlin, and Laura Roselle
2013 Strategic Narratives: Communication Power and the New World Order. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Muggah, Robert
2014 “Peacebuilding and Postconflict Recovery: What Works and What Does Not?” Meeting Note. New York: International Peace Institute.Google Scholar
Musolff, Andreas
2001 “The Metaphorisation of European Politics: Movement on the Road to Europe.” In Attitudes Towards Europe: Language in the Unification Process, ed. by Andreas Musolff, et al.., 179–200. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
2004 Metaphor and Political Discourse: Analogical Reasoning in Debates About Europe. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Metaphor, Nation and the Holocaust: The Concept of the Body Politic. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016 Political Metaphor Analysis: Discourse and Scenarios. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Newman, Edward, Roland Paris, and Oliver P. Richmond
(eds) 2009 New Perspectives on Liberal Peacebuilding. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.Google Scholar
Nye, Joseph S., Jr.
1990a Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
1990b “Soft Power.” Foreign Policy 80: 153–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Obama, Barack
2011 “Remarks by the President on the Way Forward in Afghanistan.” [URL] (Accessed 13 September 2017).
Okome, Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké
2013 “State Fragility, State Formation, and Human Security in Nigeria: Introduction, Concepts, and Questions.” In State Fragility, State Formation, and Human Security in Nigeria, ed. by Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome, 1–32. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Onuf, Nicholas
2010 “Fitting Metaphors – The Case of the European Union.” Perspectives: Central European Review of International Affairs 18 (1): 63–76.Google Scholar
2016 “Constructivism at the Crossroads; or, the Problem of Moderate-Sized Dry Goods.” International Political Sociology 10 (2): 115–132. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary
No date. [URL]. (Accessed 12 December 2017).
Paris, Roland
2010 “Saving Liberal Peacebuilding.” Review of International Studies 36 (2): 337–365. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Patrick, Stewart
2011 Weak Links: Fragile States, Global Threats, and International Security. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ponzio, Richard J.
2011 Democratic Peacebuilding: Aiding Afghanistan and other Fragile States. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Porter, Jack J.
2010 The Construction of Liberal Democracy: The Role of Civil-Military Institutions and Nation-Building in West Germany and South Africa. Washington, DC: BiblioGov.Google Scholar
Pratto, Felicia, Jim Sidanius, Fouad Bou Zeineddine, Nour Kteily, and Shana Levin
2014 “When Domestic Politics and International Relations Intermesh: Subordinated Publics’ Factional Support Within Layered Power Structures.” Foreign Policy Analysis 10 (2): 127–148. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Read, Russ
2016 “Trump Calls for A ‘Swift and Decisive’ End to US Nation Building Abroad.” [URL] (Accessed 13 September 2017).
Reus-Smit, Christian
1999 The Moral Purpose of the State: Culture, Social Identity, and Institutional Rationality in International Relations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ripsman, Norrin M.
2016 Peacemaking from Above, Peace from Below: Ending Conflict Between Regional Rivals. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Rotberg, Robert I.
2003 “Failed States, Collapsed States, Weak States: Causes and Indicators.” In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, ed. by Robert I. Rotberg, 1–25. Cambridge, MA: World Peace Foundation.Google Scholar
2004 “The Failure and Collapse of Nation-States: Breakdown, Prevention and Repair.” In When States Fail: Causes and Consequences, ed. by Robert I. Rotberg, 1–49. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sandole, Dennis J. D.
2010 Peacebuilding. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Schäffner, Christina
1996 “Building a European House? Or at Two Speeds into a Dead End? Metaphors in the Debate on the United Europe.” In Conceiving of Europe: Diversity in Unity, ed. by Andreas Musolff, Christina Schäffner, and Michael Townson, 31–59. Aldershot: Dartmouth.Google Scholar
Schulenburg, Michael von der
2017 On Building Peace: Rescuing the Nation-State and Saving the United Nations. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shelef, Nadav G.
2016 “Unequal Ground: Homelands and Conflict.” International Organization 70 (1): 33–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shore, Cris
1997 “Metaphors of Europe: Integration and the Politics of Language.” In Anthropology and Cultural Studies, ed. by Stephen Nugent, and Cris Shore, 126–159. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Trump, Donald
2016 “Donald Trump’s Speech on Fighting Terrorism.” [URL] (Accessed 13 September 2017).
United Nations
2004 “UN Recommends Nation-building Programme for Côte d'Ivoire.” [URL] (Accessed 13 September 2017).
2006 “UN Ready to Help Haiti on the Long Road of Nation-building, Says Annan.” [URL] (Accessed 13 September 2017).
Walker, R. B. J.
1993 Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wendt, Alexander
1999 Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Woodward, Susan L.
2017 The Ideology of Failed States: Why Intervention Fails. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zartman, I. William
1995 “Introduction: Posing the Problem of State Collapse.” In Collapsed States: The Disintegration and Restoration of Legitimate Authority, ed. by I. William Zartman, 1–11. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Zürcher, Christoph
2011 “Building Democracy While Building Peace.” Journal of Democracy 22 (1): 81–95.Google Scholar